10 March 20 - 26, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents have a title in the last 15 years that we re- member fondly. The Texas Rangers finally won a World Series in 2023 and have a promising 2025 ahead. Team GM Chris Young has built a team with a high level of homegrown youth, big-money veterans acquired through free agency, and perhaps a deep starting rotation for the first time ever. With that stated, you can argue the Rangers are the best-run local team, but I will not argue that. Which fran- chise gets my vote for the best-run team in North Texas? The Dallas Stars. The local hockey club doesn’t appear on the Forbes list, but CNBC recently reported that the Stars’ value is $1.9 billion, which puts them in the middle of the NHL. That total is but a fraction of what the Cowboys are valued at, and, yes, it is this team that hasn’t won a league title since that magical summer of 1999. It might sound odd at first to suggest that the Mavericks and the Cowboys should look at and learn something from a team that hasn’t won a title in decades and doesn’t have the value they do. However, with the recent acquisition of a Top 10 NHL player in Mikko Rantanen from the Carolina Hurri- canes, the Stars have yet again proven they are local leaders regarding how a franchise should be run. Make no mistake, the Dallas Stars are here to contend now and on into the future, and I invite you to hop aboard right now. Jim Nill has been the Stars’ general man- ager since 2013. In the past two years alone, he’s won back-to-back Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year awards. In the past five seasons, his team has played in three Confer- ence Finals and a Stanley Cup Final, and they are poised to once again make a deep playoff run in the coming months. This team has had an open championship window for a handful of years, and that window isn’t some tiny lit- tle prison cell window; it’s a full-length floor- to-ceiling window, exposing a blast of the brightest, most promising light. Why? Like the Cowboys, the Stars believe in drafting and developing young players. But unlike the Cowboys, Nill and his staff also identify players on other teams that have de- veloped and are aggressive in acquiring talent in any way possible to better their squad now and later. Oh, here’s a novel idea: The Stars also lock up their young talent on team- friendly deals early in their careers that bene- fit both parties involved well in the future. New team superstar Mikko Rantanen is a fantastic example of just that. Rantanen is currently just 28 years old and at the beginning of his prime playing years. He had played most of his career with the Colorado Avalanche, winning a Stanley Cup with them in 2022 while registering 25 points in 20 playoff games. The Finnish star has multiple 100-point seasons to his credit, while his new team has only had one 100-point season ever with Jason Robertson in 2023. Rantanen’s career high for goals is 55, which would tie the Stars’ all-time fran- chise record. Even better, he has 101 points in 81 career playoff games. This is an elite, big, physical goal scorer with the experience of winning a Cup and a long resume of scoring big-time goals. Colorado couldn’t agree on a contract ex- tension with him, then stunned him by trad- ing him to the Carolina Hurricanes in January. Once again, he couldn’t agree on a long-term contract, and rather than risk los- ing him this summer as a free agent for nothing in return, Carolina traded him to the Stars last week. To be sure, the price was not cheap. Not only did adding the winger cost Dallas prized prospect Logan Stankoven, a former first-round pick with a bright future in the NHL and is just 22 years old, but it also cost them two future first-round picks and two future third-round picks. Let’s not forget about the contract extension of $12 million per year for the next eight years. With that move, Rantanen became the highest-paid Star in franchise history before he ever stepped foot on the ice in a victory green sweater. But that’s the price it takes to acquire a player of his caliber and experience. And it’s a brilliant move by the Stars’ front office that vaulted them to the front of sports betting books as the favorite to skate the Cup this June. Trading for and locking up Rantanen through the 2033 season means the Stars have an extremely talented core together for years to come. That’s what the best-run fran- chises do. Identify your talent, secure it, and open a wide window for championship con- tention. Goalie Jake Oettinger is only now enter- ing his prime at age 26, and the Stars ex- tended him back in October of ’24 to secure his services through the 2033 season. Roope Hintz, already with multiple 30-goal sea- sons, is just 28 years old and is locked in through 2031. Wyatt Johnston, only in his third season, is well on his way to a second straight 30-goal season. He was signed to an extension the same day the team traded for Rantanen. Two of the team’s best three de- fensemen, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell, are under contract through 2029 and 2030, respectively, and their other top defense- man, Thomas Harley, should get a contract extension offered next season. If you’re following along at home, that’s three top-scoring forwards, three top defen- semen, and their all-star goalie, who are all secure for the next handful of seasons. The core of this team is together and will con- tinue to be one of the annual Stanley Cup contenders for the next few years. Will they finally get over the hump and bring Dallas their first title since 1999? Only time will tell. But, with smart moves in free agency to add affordable pieces around the core, like Matt Duchene, and young talent developed through the system, like former draft picks Mavrik Bourque, Oskar Back, and Lian Bischel, it’s a very bright time to be a Dallas Stars fan. Clearly, they are a shining example to a couple of other local teams of how things should be done. If you’re frustrated at the Cowboys for their continued inaction in free agency or as pissed-off as I am that the Mavericks gave away a generational talent, then turn your attention to the Dallas Stars if you haven’t al- ready. They’ve been doing it right for years and have set themselves, and all of us, up for an inspiring summer on the ice. After all these years, it is safe to chant the way we all did in 1999 when Mike Modano and his trophy-winning crew took down the Buffalo Sabres: “We want the Cup! We want the Cup!” ▼ PUBLIC SAFETY ‘CRISIS LEVEL’ DRUNK DRIVING RESPONSIBLE FOR 75% VEHICLE DEATHS. BY EMMA RUBY T exas has been ranked one of the worst states in the nation for drunk driving for years, a problem that has only gotten worse since the COVID-19 pan- demic. A recent study conducted by a Cali- fornia criminal lawyer group found six Texas cities were included in the 10 worst nationally for car accidents involving a drunk driver. The study, which considers the percent- age of fatal accidents involving a drunk driver and the percentage of individuals over 18 who report engaging in binge drink- ing, ranks Dallas as the third worst place in the United States for drunk driving. The group found that 75% of fatal accidents in Dallas involve a drunk driver. Austin, where that number is 83%, ranked first on the list, San Antonio came in fourth and Fort Worth was ranked seventh worst. “This is a real crisis around the country and especially in Texas,” Stacey D. Stewart, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), told the Observer. “And, of course, fatalities are one thing. We’re not even mentioning injuries that happen, which are usually multiple times more than the fatalities.” 2022 is the most recent year data on im- paired-driver-involved accidents is avail- able, and Stewart found 411 fatalities linked to drunk driving that year in Dallas alone. Across Texas, more than 1,800 individuals died in a drunk driver accident in 2022, a 40% increase from 2019 numbers. Nation- ally, that increase was 33%. Experts worry the normalization of im- paired driving may be a byproduct of the pandemic era when individuals reported higher rates of mental health challenges and increased alcohol or substance usage. For that reason, trends like an increased number of individuals binge drinking are a “public health crisis” directly correlated to the drunk driving crisis, she said. In Dallas, nearly 23% of residents over 18 report regularly engaging in binge drinking, which is defined as consuming more than five drinks on a single occasion for men or four drinks for women. While MADD is not entirely sure why Texas’ increase in drunk driving outpaces na- tional trends, Stewart believes the issue is both legislative — other states have taken more aggressive measures to build guardrails around impaired driving — and cultural. “People pretty much live on the high- ways, they live on the roads, they live in their cars in Texas,” Stewart said. “Many people do rely on Ubers and Lyfts after they’ve been out for a night and having a good time, and that’s really helpful, but ride share isn’t available sometimes in all areas. About 40% of all crashes happen in rural areas where ride share may not be as read- ily available.” Stewart added that Texas’ leaders have the “onus” to help curb the “preventable ac- cidents.” MADD is currently lobbying for political leaders to implement the HALT Act, which was passed in 2021 but has yet to be implemented. The act directs the federal government to require new cars be fitted with “technology that passively ... detects and stops impaired driving” and was sup- posed to be implemented in November last year. The U.S. Department of Transportation missed that deadline despite data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety esti- mating that 10,000 of 2022’s 13,000 fatali- ties nationally could have been prevented by technology. In Texas, some legislators are starting to take note. Several representatives have filed bills during the legislative session that would raise the sentencing minimums for those found guilty of intoxication man- slaughter. Stewart said this “extremely help- ful” measure would help prevent repeat offenders. “We don’t just have an opioid crisis in this country. We have an alcohol and sub- stance use crisis,” Stewart said. “And we have a lot of people who’ve lost sight of the fact that any amount of impairment actually could be dangerous on the roads.” Adobe Stock The Dallas Stars have a long history of churning out winners like Mike Modano. Unfair Park from p8
